That's not many at all, of course no one wants a sex offender in their town generally. There are thousands in my city and so I can just be aware of the ones in my neighborhood or places I go. In Texas you cannot rent an apartment if you are a sex offender, so they generally live in houses with someone else, jail, in a halfway house, or they are on the lam. The last 2 are the scariest because the desperate take desperate measures.
This poor little Texas town of 6,500 is probably "thrilled" about the soon to be new residents..
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Va...-Chosen-to-House-Sex-Offenders-320425832.html
But anyway, does anyone remember the Elizabeth Smart breakthrough? When her little sister told her dad sometime after Elizabeth was kidnapped that she thought she saw the man that worked on their yard the night of the abduction, but her father didn't think it was a useful tip? and John Walsh went ahead and persuaded them to release the info?
When the initial shock wears off people start to remember things surrounding an event that they'd completely forgotten or seemed irrelevent. A sort of "mild amnesia" to help the brain cope and as the first stress leaves memories return. Maybe this is what Jessica meant when she believed DeOrr Jr. was taken but couldn't articulate much further until recently, she may not have been able to remember (that creepy guy in the store.)